


Thirty Days

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-22 00:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7410913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a little ficlet about a random day in the Castle of Lions, mainly from Lance's point of view. Mostly introspection on Lance's part, with minimal dialogue. Also not outright but hints at the possible beginnings of a Klance relationship possibly starting.</p><p>Mostly just a little practice before I start writing again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirty Days

Lance was currently missing music. Not a day went by that he did not miss something, but today, specifically, it was music. He looked at his private notebook and glanced at the notches. Twenty, maybe thirty. Thirty days he had not heard his favorite song. Thirty days and he had not a tune to dance to. Not that his current crew-mates inspired him to really break out his best moves. But after a good battle, or after a tough training session, to be able to just dance to his favorite song in his room was really all he needed.

Hell, he thought to himself, he’d settle for a song he didn’t even like at this point. “Gasolina” came to mind as he looked at the little speck of light on the galaxy map that represented Earth. He smiled in spite of himself. He thought back to all the family parties. Everyone in the family claimed to hate that song, but damned if it didn’t end up on every party playlist, much to the dismay of the older folks. And damned again if everyone wasn’t shaking something or tapping their foot to it with the older folks faces set to scowl. Lance sighed heavily.

He often came to this deck to look at the galaxy map. Looking at the speck of Earth made him feel that home was within reach. Aside from Coran, most of the crew knew not to bother him in this spot. He had claimed it as his place of peace and quiet where he could be alone with his thoughts. Pidge had the lab, Hunk had the kitchen, Shiro had the training deck, Keith had the.... Lance raised an eyebrow. Keith had not really staked a claim on any place in the castle. He shared the training deck with Shiro, Lance supposed. Mostly Keith seemed to know where not to be. Lance grimaced as he stood. He stretched and yawned, and slipped the notebook into the pocket of his jacket, leaving his hand in there as he walked off the deck.

After a certain point, being alone was not preferable to company. His thoughts led him down paths that had too many obstacles and forks. To be perfectly honest, too many of these paths converged on one point: Keith. The guy was a puzzle, to be sure, but Lance wasn’t sure why he was so eager to figure him out. Early on, his main purpose had been to sum up the competition. He wasn’t going to let Keith get a leg up on him --Lance mentally noted to make a joke about having a leg up because of his blue lion-- by not knowing the enemy. Maybe he still considered Keith competition, but he was no longer an enemy. They had worked past all that because of Voltron. Lance had made several assumptions about Keith, and a good majority of them proved to be wrong. The funny thing was: there was no right answer to replace those assumptions, just a hole and a curiosity.

Lance was getting close to the lounge by the kitchen and could hear the crew, he could hear his friends. Hunk was telling some joke that Lance had heard a million times. Everyone had. Except... Lance turned the corner and his suspicion was instantly confirmed. Keith was the audience of the joke. He and Hunk had definitely formed a camaraderie. Hunk could befriend a snail, and Keith... well Keith seemed content to be included. Lance halted in the doorway, watching Hunk animatedly finish up his joke. Pidge was on her computer, smirking and mouthing the words to a joke she knew by heart by now. There was a silence. A pause as Hunk finished and waited expectantly for Keith’s reaction.

It wasn’t instant. Keith seemed to need a few seconds sometimes. He wasn’t stupid, Lance hated to admit. Just liked to think when it came to things like jokes. If only he could apply that nature to his battle strategies once in awhile. A few seconds went by, and as if by clockwork, Keith’s laughter filled the room. Pidge snorted and Hunk seemed to be on the verge of tears at the thought of someone not laughing at one of his best jokes. Hunk’s own laughter joined with Keith’s. Lance leaned in the doorway and rolled his eyes, only then realizing he was smiling too.

He smiled all the time, but it was usually intentional. His smile had a purpose. It was rare for a smile to sneak up on him these days. It was something that happened often at home, but not much since he had left home to join the garrison. He took himself out of that train of thought. He didn’t want to drag himself or anyone else down right now. His eyes wandered around the room again, Hunk wiping a tear from his eye as his other hand was resting on Keith’s shoulder.

Keith was still smiling, speaking to Hunk now. A question? Lance’s eyes were resting on Keith when he realized Keith’s eyes had focused in on him. How long had he been looking at him? How long had Keith been looking at him look at him? Oh god. Lance wanted to avert his gaze but if he looked away quickly it would look like he was embarrassed. And he had no reason to be embarrassed. His face must have been heating up for some other reason. Keith now had turned away from Hunk and was facing Lance full on. He opened his mouth to speak.

A hand placed firmly on Lance’s shoulder sent him reeling and he was pretty sure he screamed as Coran was announcing dinner. Lance placed his hand on his chest as he collected himself.

“Sorry Lance, didn’t figure you for the jumpy type. Although, I guess you were pretty jumpy that time you thought the castle was haunted,” Coran was pulling at his mustache and had a distant look about him, as usual.

“Okay but the castle WAS haunted! By Allura’s dad!” Lance said defensively through his heavy breaths.

“Allura’s father wasn’t haunting the castle. It was a corrupt AI! Completely scientifically explainable!” Coran responded.

“Fine, a corrupt AI haunted the castle. My point is, my jumpyness was completely valid!” Lance said, animately.

“It DID try to kill us,” Pidge added, not looking up from her screen.

“Potato, tomato. Speaking of which! Dinner is ready, so everyone get to the dining hall on the double!” Coran said, his tone as cheerful as ever. Hunk snorted as he let out an airy chuckle.   
“It’s not potato, tomato, it’s potato, po-tah-to,” Hunk explained to Coran as they both exited the lounge.

“I don’t get it,” Coran said flatly as they disappeared down the hall. Pidge slapped her laptop shut and jumped up from her seat.

“Wait, does that mean we’re getting potatoes for dinner? Or tomatoes?” Pidge asked excitedly, running after them.

“I doubt it,” Keith said as dryly as ever, walking towards the door.

Although the animosity between he and Lance had died down considerably, Lance saw no reason to start being polite, and turned and walked out of the room ahead of Keith instead of waiting for him. Lance opened his mouth to say something snide to fill the silence, but nothing was coming to mind. Lance was failing his title as the paladin that never knew when to shut up. He sighed, almost laughing at himself.

“Something wrong?” Keith asked from behind. Lance paused, not expecting that. He didn’t know why it took him by surprise. Keith had definitely been more willing to reach out and form a bond than Lance had ever been. Regardless, the question seemed sincere and that was what had Lance perturbed.

“Just thinking about home. Again,” Lance decided to admit. It was easier than admitting he felt awkward. Missing home seemed more socially acceptable than “for some reason I feel nervous and weird around you at this point in time”.

“Is that why you were smiling?” Keith asked, his curiosity genuine, though with his subdued tone, it was only barely noticeable to Lance.

“Smiling? I wasn’t smiling? When was I smiling?” Lance asked. Because THAT sure didn’t sound panicked.

“In the doorway. You were watching us?” Keith stated the facts casually. It wasn’t an accusation, merely an observation.   
“I was? I was..I was watching? You? I don’t think so. Why would I watch you?” Lance was on the defense despite Keith very obviously not being at all on the offense.

“If you say so. It must have been some other skinny guy with a bad haircut,” Keith said deadpan. Lance needed a moment to recover. Was..that..a burn? He almost wanted to congratulate Keith but his pride demanded another reaction.

“ _You_ want to talk about hair? **_Really_**?” Lance smirked his most obnoxious smirk. He was ready. He had a million things to say about Keith’s hair. Not that he didn’t like it, actually. The length suited him. Did Keith really think his haircut was bad, though? It was growing out a bit with no one to really cut it. But… by the time Lance pulled himself out of his thoughts, Keith had disappeared around a corner and was already walking into the dining hall, leaving Lance alone with his million thoughts and comments about Keith’s hair. Lance shrugged off the notion that that was probably way too many thoughts to have on someone’s hair, specifically someone he supposedly hated. Instead he caught up with Keith and they entered the dining hall to join the rest of the crew for dinner.


End file.
